All this was too good to last! One morning, when Harry and Laura looked out of the window, it was a most deplorably wet day. The whole sky looked like a large grey cotton umbrella, and the clouds were so low that Harry thought he could almost have touched them. In short, as Lord Rockville remarked, "it rained cats and dogs," so his Lordship knitted his brows, and thrust his hands into his waistcoat pockets, walking up and down the room in a perfect fume of vexation, for he was so accustomed to be obeyed, that it seemed rather a hardship when even the weather contradicted his wishes. To complete his vexation, as "single misfortunes never come alone," his valet, when carelessly drying the Morning Post at a large kitchen fire, had set it in flames, so that all the wonderful news it contained became reduced to ashes, therefore Lord Rockville might well have given notice, that, for this day at least, he had a right to be in extremely bad humour. Lady Rockville privately recommended Harry and Laura to sit quietly down and play at cat's cradle, which accordingly they did, and when that became no longer endurable, some dominos were produced. Thus the morning wore tediously away till about two o'clock, when suddenly the rain stopped, the sun burst forth with prodigious splendour, every leaf in the park glittered, as if it had been sprinkled with diamonds, and a hundred birds seemed singing a chorus of joy, while bees and butterflies fluttered at the windows and flew away rejoicing. Harry was the first to observe this delightful change, and with an exclamation of delight, he sprang from his seat, pulled Laura from hers, upset the domino-table, and rushed out of the room, slamming the door with a report like twenty cannons. Away they both flew to the forest, Laura swinging her bonnet in her hand, and Harry tossing his cap in the air, while Lord Rockville watched them angrily from the drawing-room window, saying, in a tone of extreme displeasure, "That boy has a voice that might do for the town-crier! He laughs so loud, it is enough to crack every glass in the room! I wish he were condemned to pass a week in those American prisons where no one is allowed to speak. In short, he would be better anywhere than here, for I might as well live with a hammer and tongs, as with the two children together. They are more restless than the quicksilver figures from China, and I wish they were as quiet, but my only comfort is, that at any rate they come home punctually to dinner at five. Nothing is so intolerable as people dropping in too late and disordering the table."